The Creation of The Jaunty Man
Just a dumb little origin story about our logo. Enjoy.
Recluse Rags officially launched over a year ago. It's an easy day to remember, because it's been highly meme'd for so long (does that make it a meme-orable day?) thanks to Mean Girls:
"On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was."
Okay, I just double checked and I think we technically launched on October 4th, but it's 100% true that we really meant for it to be October 3rd. Problem was I sort of fell asleep while triple-checking that the site was good to go.
Anyway, back on topic. While the brand itself launched in October, the idea first came to life months earlier. One evening, I decided to take a look back through my long-running notes list of ideas, one that I had just been updating randomly over the past decade any time a thought (any thought) popped into my head. Should I do something with it? Was there anything good in there?
NOPE. I basically threw it out. Most of the ideas were terrible. Seems like there can be a big difference between having an idea and having a good idea, and I realized that firsthand. But, what I couldn't let go of at that point was the fundamental spark behind it: that I wanted to create something, just because it was what I wanted to do.
I've spent years second-guessing every idea I'd ever had, all because I was concerned about what others would think of them. I was afraid of failure, but it was time to put that fear to an end. I had the energy now; I just needed to meld it into something concrete.
The name, Recluse Rags, came easy. Probably because I was left home alone at the time and got into my weird little independent vibe. The logo, however, took some more fumbling around to get right.
This is absolutely a drawing. The most thing I've ever seen.
The first thing I sketched was just *the worst* by every definition of the word. I immediately moved on, and as luck would have it, the next idea was equally terrible, but in it's own totally different, yet totally awful way. This repeated for a few iterations, but after 4 or 5 rounds, there was a definite shift. The essence was there, but the implementation hadn't caught up yet. It was a simple figure reclining, sure, but it was off, and just annoyingly generic. So I started zeroing in on refining the head. It needed to stay simple, but it also needed to look more alive. After re-drawing it a few times, I finally landed on the version you see gracing the top of our page today. Not a single facial expression to be had, but to me, every time I look at the Jaunty man reclining, I see confidence, a sense of being put together, and an individual in deep thought. Most likely thinking about something silly, but in deep thought nonetheless.
I'm proud of it, whether anyone else likes it or not.
It's not a "perfect" logo by any means. Most of the lines are varying thicknesses, there are little oddities to the shape in general, and the legs just aren't quite right. My own mother didn't even recognize it as a person the first time I showed it to her. So yeah, it has flaws. I know this, and I've even considered polishing it up into a more "professional" version at times. But, really, we're not a brand for professionals. We're a brand for the bold, the ones who do it their own way, regardless of the judgement or opinion of others. No one goes their own way perfectly, so why should our logo be any different?
It wouldn't even be until a good while later, just weeks before launch, that I created a version of him standing up, the same one we use on our signature men's shirt, among others. It's when we created this version that my wife unintentionally gave him the name "The Jaunty Man." She liked it because the way he is stepping makes it look like he's out having fun, just jaunting around. And it's that casually energetic positivity, along with the confidence to just be your slightly weird self, like you're right at home, that captures the spirit of Recluse Rags.
The Jaunty Man is the vibe, and we should all aspire to channel that vibe just a little bit more each day.
Stay 'luse.